Mutation - Creatures of the Wastes
This section will cover the creatures you meet in your travels. Note that there aren’t a huge amount of great quality creature retextures out there - I’ve selected the only ones that I feel are worth using. Remember that the FO3 HD Pack is also doing some heavy lifting here.
Creatures
Desert Natural Creatures
More of a quantitative change than a qualitative one - based on vanilla textures, but recolored in sensible ways. Highly recommended.
aMidianBorn NV Superb Mutants
Excellent retexture for super mutants. Note for TTW users, this will not cover DC super mutants. There is a patch, but it has some glitches and will not be linked here until/unless it is fixed.
Horrors of The New West
Controversial remodel of deathclaws. Personally I feel the look is much more appropriate. The following retexture will work with or without this mod.
Deathclaw Retexture
Does exactly what you’d think.
Tactics Midwest Deathclaw Replacer
ALTERNATE to the previous two mods - If you’re in the mood for a different take on Deathclaws, more in-line with Fallout Tactics (and in some ways, the original concept art for FO1), this is an absolutely excellent mod from Webb.
However, if you do want to mix and match all these deathclaw replacers and see some regional diversity in their appearance, considering the following mods as well -
Tactics Midwest Deathclaws Lonesome Road Only Patch
The tactics deathclaws will appear in LR, the rest of the game will be the Horrors (or vanilla, as the case may be) versions.
Tactics Midwest Deathclaw - TTW Replacer
Same as above, but for the DC areas in TTW. You can combine both of these mods for ultimate differentiation.
Menace of The New West
Significant overhaul of super mutants to bring them more inline with the classics. Very subjective, but at the very least the one-handed firing animations for larger guns are amazing. TTW patch is available here.
TheFriedTurkey's Bighorners
F4NV port, and one that I highly recommend.
Glowing Cazadors and Retexture
Everyone’s favorite pepsis, now in higher def.
Improved Robots Textures - All in One
A good baseline for all robots. You may find Protectrons too shiny, especially with Real Time Reflections. Hide or delete the Protectron textures if so.
Securitrons On Alert
This mod improves and colorizes Securitron faces.
NV Securitrons Lip Sync
And this compliments the last mod by adding animated mouth movement.
Securitron HD
Another Guide exclusive, again special thanks to macintroll (proof of permission upon request). Hands-down the best retexture of Securitrons available.
Feral Ghouls HD
Another Guide exclusive, again special thanks to macintroll (proof of permission upon request). Does what you’d assume it does, excellent stuff.
Decaying Ferals
An alternative to above - if not using Realtime Reflections, I recommend using the above mod instead.
Ghouls HD
Same as above, but for non-feral ghoul types (i.e. ghoul NPCs). Both are recommended. Not tested with most body replacers.
Eyes of Torment - Ghost People Retexture
Retexture of Dead Money’s main enemy type. Looks great - Realtime Reflections recommended.
Earthblighted Tunnelers
Retexture of Lonesome Road’s tunnelers. Excellent work, and as with the previous mod RTR is recommended.
Add-on Packs
These are some nice add-ons that add more creatures - and more difficult creatures - to the wasteland. Please note - at least one user has reported instability with one or more of these mods. Test these separately from the rest of the list.
Monster Mod Lite and Prodlimens both allow you to disable added creatures via their ini files. If you find creatures that you feel you don’t like or are janky (you will), you can always get rid of them while retaining the others.
There is a customized ini from SamsyTheUnicorn available on my discord, pinned in the guide FAQ channel.
Another Ghoul Variant Mod
Another excellent Arccharger mod that adds multiple new ghoul variations throughout the wasteland - some of these can be very challenging.
PARCS TTW Pack Of Arcs Random Creatures 'N Stuff
Arccharger adds another must-have for the monster section. This one is for TTW users, and adds a ton of new variety as well as new weapons, recipes, and locations. Challenging, but highly recommended.
Monster Mod Lite 2021
Oldschool players will recognize momod - but unfortunately the original has hundreds of bugs and other issues. This mod requires the original assets (see mod page for instructions) but fixes the issues with the plugins and removes a lot of the…less good…creatures.
Not for everyone, and some of the creatures are still rather buggy (lacking dismemberment, weird sound effects, other things), but still a nice add-on if you’re ok with a little bit of jank.
S6S's Prodlimen Creature Integration Pack
As with the last one - an excellent remade plugin (see instructions on modpage), with some glitchy creatures that may annoy some players. Presented as an option, not a requirement.
Prodlimen’s needs to be placed BEFORE any texture mods in MO2’s left panel order - failure to do so will revert many textures to vanilla.
Almost? done!
Next page is last page - and if you’re happy with the User Interface mods from the other guides you’ve followed - Conglaturations, You’re Winner! That is to say, the next section is purely UI-focused, so if all you wanted was visuals, go forth and wander the Wasteland!